January 2018

Thematic parallels can appear and recur in film festivals. The 2018 edition of the Sundance Film Festival, which can be spliced in various ways under the umbrella of the common themes and topics it delved into throughout its 10-day run, is no...

In Qasim Basir’s “A Boy, A Girl, A Dream,” the male in this equation is Omari Hardwick’s depressed filmmaker Cass, a cornucopia of masculine emotions from over-aggression to sensitivity to insecurity. A minute or two into...

One of the very best directorial debuts I saw at Sundance was that of Jordana Spiro, whose care for her characters and their hurt transcends what seems like a recognizable story pitch. Dominque Fishback (previously seen on HBO’s “The...

On the night of September 28, 1919, in downtown Omaha, Nebraska, a black man named Will Brown was lynched: He was stripped, beaten, and hanged from a lamppost; his body was burned on a bonfire and dragged behind a car through the streets; the...

Editor's note: Jomo Fray is one of three recipients of the Sundance Institute's Roger Ebert Fellowship for Film Criticism for 2018. In the novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Hunter S. Thompson recalls his time in the '60s during...

NBC has been on something of a comedy roll lately with their most acclaimed two-hour block of funny programming on Thursday nights since the heyday of Must-See TV. Sadly, while the critics have embraced shows like “The Good Place” and...

While the general consensus was that 2018’s Sundance was a “good-not-great” edition of the annual event, there was plenty of “good” to go around. Our quartet of contributors that braved the Park City weather and long...

Editor's note: Gary Wilkerson, Jr. is one of three recipients of the Sundance Institute's Roger Ebert Fellowship for Film Criticism for 2018. As a life-long member of the Awkward Kid Club, I’ve been waiting for a movie...

Editor's note: Brandon Towns is one of three recipients of the Sundance Institute's Roger Ebert Fellowship for Film Criticism for 2018. Sundance’s short program spotlights various projects by unique indie filmmakers....

The three-star rating that I've given to the equally thrilling and upsetting Indian period spectacular "Padmaavat" does not reflect my personal disagreement with the film's politics. A review's star rating is usually supposed to be a holistic...